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Health Care 1997
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The information below comes from the UK Activity Report.
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Primary Health Properties is acquiring a medical centre and associated retail units in Bourne, Lincolnshire, for £1.56m in a forward purchasing and funding agreement. 31-Dec-1997 Enviromed, the healthcare company, has held discussions that could lead to an offer being made for the company. 30-Dec-1997 Barbican Healthcare is acquiring M Spencer Swaine, the London dental practice. 29-Dec-1997 Sinclair Montrose has announced plans to set up NHS GP surgeries in Boots retail outlets, using its Medicentres concept. 19-Dec-1997 Guardian Royal Exchange is acquiring PPP Healthcare, the private health insurer, for £435m in order to benefit from an expected reduction in services offered by the National Health Service. 18-Dec-1997 The Office of Fair Trading has cleared Bupa's £241m hostile takeover bid for Care First, the nursing homes group. 18-Dec-1997 Westminster Healthcare has sold 12 nursing homes to Tamaris for £20m, and Tamaris will sell and lease them back to a new investment trust set up by Westminster and Holiday Retirement Corp of the US. 16-Dec-1997 Healthcall has received an approach from a newly established company formed by its executive directors that may lead to a takeover offer. 16-Dec-1997 The government is planning to link GP surgeries to a National Health Service information superhighway over the next few years, giving them access to specialist medical advice and hospital appointment booking systems. 16-Dec-1997 Smith & Nephew is acquiring the wound care product programme of Perstop of Sweden for £11.8m. 15-Dec-1997 HSBC Investment Bank has bought a 1% stake in Care First, apparently on behalf of Chai Patel who is still interested in acquiring the nursing homes company. 13-Dec-1997 Community Hospitals has offered £24m to acquire the remaining 80% of Independent British Healthcare, which would double its number of hospitals to 22. 13-Dec-1997 Care First, the nursing home company, has failed to secure a higher takeover bid from its former chief executive, thus increasing the chances of Bupa succeeding with its £241m hostile bid. 06-Dec-1997 Nursing Home Properties has raised £38m in a share placing to fund the purchase of additional nursing homes over the next two years. 27-Nov-1997 Care First, the nursing homes operator, has rejected a £241m takeover offer from Bupa, saying the offer was too low. 13-Nov-1997 Hambro Insurance Services is to introduce medical helplines which will provide advice to patients on whether they should stay at home or go to hospital, and expects the service to be funded by hospital trusts, insurers, and physicians. 08-Nov-1997 Gyrus, the producer of electronic equipment for key-hole surgery, is to raise £12m in a share placing in order to set up a salesforce and develop new products. 07-Nov-1997 Haemocell, the developer of a system for recycling blood, is in discussions which could lead to a reverse takeover, as it is keen to find a strategic partner in order to alleviate financial difficulties. 03-Nov-1997 Care First, the nursing homes operator that is in takeover talks with Bupa, has received a surprise £240m approach from a venture capital group, a move which could force Bupa to increase its offer. 03-Nov-1997 The government has announced plans to set up a single independent regulatory regime for both nursing and residential homes, a move which is expected to be opposed by local authorities who want to maintain some control. 01-Nov-1997 Tamaris is planning to set up nursing home joint ventures in Malaysia and Singapore by creating a new subsidiary called Tamaris International. 30-Oct-1997 Baneberry Healthcare has been created with the backing of Principal Healthcare Finance in order to acquire the Sandown Group, the healthcare operator with 30 homes in Northern Ireland. 30-Oct-1997 Nursing Home Properties is to spend up to £60m on new nursing homes in a joint venture with Lend Lease, the Australian property company. 28-Oct-1997 Bupa is said to be considering plans to convert some of Care First's nursing homes into rehabilitation centres and clinics if its £200m takeover succeeds. 27-Oct-1997 Care First, the nursing homes group, has received a takeover approach from Bupa worth up to £215m. 24-Oct-1997 Hawtin has closed its physiotherapy and sports injury clinics, as they have lost about £1m over the last 14 months. 23-Oct-1997 Independent British Healthcare has announced that it is in talks that could lead to an offer being made for the company. 22-Oct-1997 Bupa has won government approval for its £77m acquisition of Goldsborough Healthcare, and will be able to go-ahead with plans to sell a 21% stake in Independent British Healthcare. 21-Oct-1997 PPP Lifetime, the care insurance provider, has announced 19 redundancies among its sales staff due to lower than expected sales growth. 17-Oct-1997 Smiths Industries has indicated that it would be interested in acquiring the medical devices business of BOC's Ohmeda healthcare subsidiary. 16-Oct-1997 The government has announced that an additional £300m is being made available to the health budget in order to help avert an expected hospital admissions crisis this winter. 15-Oct-1997 Birmingham Health Authority is considering a £250m plan to use one-day treatment for up to 85% of hospital cases, a move which could lead to a nationwide growth in bedless hospitals. 10-Oct-1997 Gyrus Group, the electronic medical devices concern, is to raise £10m in a flotation in the next two months, in order to build up its manufacturing facilities and develop a sales force. 08-Oct-1997 Norwich Union Healthcare is linking up with Sinclair Montrose to offer insurance products based on Sinclair's GP surgeries, a move which will see NUH acquire a 6% stake in Sinclair at a cost of £2m. 07-Oct-1997 Care First, the nursing homes operator, has spent £7m buying back 4.1% of its shares. 03-Oct-1997 Unilever is to merge three of its US personal care products companies, Chesebrough-Pond's, Helene Curtis and Lever Brothers, in order to provide cost savings. 26-Sep-1997 The government is to merge 30 NHS health care trusts into 16 units in a major shake-up of the system designed to encourage co-operation and eliminate competition. 22-Sep-1997 Huntleigh Technology, the medical equipment company, is planning to expand into northern and central Europe through the acquisition of distributors, and increase the size of its sales force in the US. 19-Sep-1997 Nursing Home Properties has acquired 15 nursing homes, with 725 beds, for £25m, and will lease them back to Eton Hall. 11-Sep-1997 The government is considering plans for the introduction of compulsory long-term sickness insurance as part of an overhaul of disability benefits. 10-Sep-1997 Integrated Dental Holdings, the dentists' group based in the north of England, is planning to list on the Alternative Investment Market in October, with a £2m placing. 09-Sep-1997 The government has announced an increase in hospital waiting lists of 136,500 people in the year to June, and levels will continue to rise despite a decision to bring forward £1bn of extra health funding announced in the Budget. 22-Aug-1997 Westminster Healthcare is aiming to focus on higher-margin operations such as rehabilitation centres and assisted living apartments, funded by the sale of about 10% of its nursing homes. 15-Aug-1997 Sinclair Montrose Healthcare has raised £6.6m in a share placing, which will be used to expand its Medicentre business and finance further acquisitions. 12-Aug-1997 The government is considering moves to permit pharmacists to diagnose minor ailments and offer drugs without a doctor's prescription, in response to a desire by the large pharmacy chains to become more customer-friendly. 04-Aug-1997 Bupa has been told by the government to dispose of a 21% stake in Independent British Healthcare in order to avoid having its planned acquisition of Goldsborough Healthcare referred to the Monopolies & Mergers Commission. 02-Aug-1997 Primary Health Properties is acquiring the Wakefield Health Village, the West Yorkshire building that includes a medical practice, pharmacy and retail units, for £3.7m. 31-Jul-1997 Tamaris has acquired Caledonian Care, the operator of two care homes in Scotland, from Epsom Investment Service for £1.2m. 29-Jul-1997 Tamaris is paying about £9m to acquire a portfolio of office buildings from Colegate Management, and intends to use the profits from the letting of the properties to expand its nursing homes business. 18-Jul-1997 The Office of Fair Trading is launching an inquiry into nursing homes, and will ask residents about the quality of service they are receiving. 09-Jul-1997 Procurnet Health is launching a web site to compete in the National Health Service supplies business, carrying a database of up to 40,000 companies and their products and aimed at doctors, NHS trusts, hospitals and nursing homes. 26-Jun-1997 Premier Health Group is to sell its Nursing Management Services subsidiary in the US to ATC Healthcare Services for about £2.1m. 25-Jun-1997 Occupancy rates at nursing homes have fallen to an all-time low of 84% and profits have been almost non-existent since local authorities took over the funding of places, according to a survey by Laing and Buisson. 24-Jun-1997 Paragon has sold its 7% stake in Care UK, the healthcare services company, generating £3.9m. 24-Jun-1997 Unipart is setting up a new company with the government's Buying Agency (TBA) called Surestock Health Services, which will provide a "one-stop-shop" link between National Health Service Trusts and their suppliers. 20-Jun-1997 Nursing Home Properties has bought a further eight nursing homes for £17.1m. 18-Jun-1997 The government is to cut the number of hospitals to be built under the private finance initiative from 43 to about 10 as part of a prioritisation exercise. 11-Jun-1997 Tamaris is to increase its number of nursing home beds from 2,000 to 3,000 this year through a joint venture with Principal Healthcare, and will now concentrate on earnings rather than asset growth. 11-Jun-1997 Westminster Healthcare has acquired PPP Healthcare's 11 nursing centres for £23m, in a deal which will see Westminster becoming the primary supplier of long-term care for PPP's medical insurance customers. 05-Jun-1997 Bupa is acquiring 14 nursing homes from Community Hospitals for £29m, as Community withdraws from the market in order to focus on hospitals. 30-May-1997 Goldsborough Healthcare is looking to sell about 12 nursing homes in London and the North for about £20m in total, as it aims to focus on private hospitals. 20-May-1997 Bentley Health Care, a new company being set up by a former executive of Zeneca, is aiming to raise up to $300m to set up a chain of cancer and HIV clinics. 16-May-1997 Matrix Healthcare has acquired the Allambie Court nursing home in Nuneaton for £820,000, as well as the Nightingale Residential Home in Bradford for £350,000. 13-May-1997 Primary Health Properties is acquiring a surgery in Willesden, London, for £1.3m. 02-May-1997 Tamaris is acquiring the 60-bed Bearehill Nursing and Residential Home in Brechin for £1.6m. 02-May-1997 Principal Healthcare Investors, the finance company that buys nursing homes and leases them to healthcare companies, has been revealed as the company considering a takeover bid for Quality Care Homes. 30-Apr-1997 Quality Care Homes, the nursing homes group, has confirmed it is in discussions with an unnamed company which could lead to a takeover bid. 29-Apr-1997 Nursing Home Properties has acquired seven nursing homes for £12.6m and, following a £100m bond issue, plans to expand its portfolio by £50m to about £170m. 23-Apr-1997 Trinity Care has bought a non-operating nursing home in Worcester from Gladman Homes for £2.7m. 03-Apr-1997 TC Group, formed from the recent merger of Takare and Court Cavendish, is to be renamed Care First Group. 22-Mar-1997 SmithKline Beecham has won a contract to run the pathology laboratory at West Middlesex hospital and plans to win more contracts across the UK and north west Europe. 21-Mar-1997 The government has announced plans to transfer care services for adults away from local authority control and into the private sector. 13-Mar-1997 Tamaris has acquired two east London nursing homes for £5.9m. 06-Mar-1997 Community Hospitals Group is looking to sell its nursing homes division in order to focus on its hospitals business, as it feels unable to compete in the rapidly-consolidating nursing homes sector. 25-Feb-1997 Abu Dhabi Investment Company's HCI Medical centre in Clydebank is seeking redundancies as part of a three year plan to achieve sustained profitability. 20-Feb-1997 Tamaris is to sell and leaseback three of its nursing homes for up to £7.5m following a deal with IHP. 14-Feb-1997 Tarmac is leading a consortium that has won a £100m contract to build a 400-bed hospital in Dartford under the Private Finance Initiative. 12-Feb-1997 PPP is to start using a network of just 150 hospitals for customers of its private health insurance in order to improve the quality of care and reduce premiums, a move which could result in the closure of some private hospitals. 10-Feb-1997 Nursing Home Properties has bought a further seven nursing homes for £13.5m. 05-Feb-1997 The British Medical Association is to lobby against government plans to allow family doctors to set up surgeries in supermarkets and chemists. 28-Jan-1997 Northern Rock, the building society, is buying Kingsclear Homes, the operator of 23 nursing homes, for £40m. 11-Jan-1997 The information below comes from the UK Activity Report. Click here for further details Copyright UK Business Park 1995-2007